Pavel Tigrid (1917–2003) returned to his past with characteristic temperance when shortly after the war he wrote the now forgotten article Volá Londýn (London Calling). In it he captured the experience of wartime London, the BBC and the Czechoslovak exile community. The text is supplemented by a hitherto unreleased Tigrid programme for the BBC’s wartime broadcasts as well as a study exploring the context of Tigrid’s wartime exile and the fates of his friends and companions. The book Volá Londýn. Ze zákulisí československého vysílání z Londýna (London Calling: Behind the Scenes of Czechoslovak Broadcasting from London) is being published on the centenary of Tigrid’s birth by the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes.
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In his new book One White Day, Adin Ljuca chronicles the story of a man who finds himself inadvertently in an extreme situation of war, illness and loss, which the Bosnian writer observes from a perspective bereft of pathos or a veil of melancholy. He composes a sophisticated mosaic from fragments of human fate, telling the intimate story of a man and woman whose wartime experience have left them without any illusions or many of their nearest and dearest. His book One White Day has been translated by leading Balkan Studies expert František Šístek. He led a discussion with the author on images and stereotypes of the Balkans, Czech-South Slav relations, nationalism, the refugee phenomenon and literary matters.
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Vladimír Hanzel was for 14 years secretary to Václav Havel, both as a dissident and as president, and is also an expert on music. He was responsible for official and unofficial contact with musicians. He organised a musical evening with Bill Clinton at Reduta jazz club (1994), was co-organiser of the first ever mega-concert in this country, an appearance by the Rolling Stones at Strahov stadium (1990), and helped set up and took part in Havel’s personal meetings with the Velvet Underground, Mstislav Rostropovich, Bob Dylan, Dizzy Gillespie, Tina Turner, Pink Floyd, Sinéad O’Connor, Sting, Lou Reed and many, many more.
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The versatile artist and writer, prankster, Dadaist and Chartist Eugen Brikcius, who is 75 this year, has produced his 19th book. Postila (Postil) is an analysis: of life and work, generally and specifically. A 36-minute novel with illustrations by Ellen Jilemnická.
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Can we comprehend the brutal Yugoslav war? Or describe it? The Polish reporter Wojciech Tochman and the Czech journalist Jan Urban attempted to do so in their books of reportage. Evening moderated by the translator Lenka Kuhar Daňhelová.
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